“The Katrina of Recessions” (Welcome to the first edition of the Main Street weekly digest)

[Omaha Steve]

Welcome to the first edition of the Main Street weekly digest.

Front page story here: http://www.workingamerica.org/blog/2009/09/16/the-katrina-of-recessions/

For the other stories click the word on the street tab.


"The Katrina of Recessions"

When President Obama addressed the AFL-CIO convention this week, calling on labor to help the country rebuild our middle class, the millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans were, in a sense, also in the room.

And as we know, and Bob Herbert reported in his column the same day, those millions of Americans are in “A World of Hurt”.

While the Wall Street Journal was touting Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s view that the recession was “very likely over”, Mr. Herbert wrote:

“this is no time to lose sight of the wreckage all around us. This recession, a full-blown economic horror, has left a gaping hole in the heart of working America that is unlikely to heal for years, if not decades.

Fifteen million Americans are locked in the nightmare of unemployment, nearly 10 percent of the work force. A third have been jobless for more than six months. Thirteen percent of Latinos and 15 percent of blacks are out of work. (Those are some of the official statistics. The reality is much worse.)”

Herbert reports on a devastating survey by Rutgers University professors Carl Van Horn and Cliff Zukin for the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development titled “The Anguish of Unemployment” (pdf).

To get beyond the usual reporting of numbers and statistics, the study sought to address the human toll of the recession on unemployed Americans. They surveyed 1,200 Americans nationwide who have been unemployed and looking for work in the last 12 months, and found 894 still jobless. They say their study

“portrays a shaken, traumatized people coping with serious financial and psychological effects from an economic downturn of epic proportions.”

Describing the overall results of the survey, co-author Van Horn said:

“Millions of unemployed Americans are suffering economic and personal catastrophes. This is not your ordinary dip in the business cycle. Americans believe that this is the Katrina of recessions. Folks are on their rooftops without a boat. The water is rising, and many see no way out.”

Summarizing some of what the survey found:

60% of the recently unemployed lost their jobs suddenly, without advance warning; more than half the unemployed lost their jobs for the very first time; more than half have borrowed money from friends or relatives; 25% have skipped mortgage or rent payments; two-thirds report being depressed; three-quarters feel stress and anxiety; three-fifths report feeling helpless; only 40% of those currently unemployed received unemployment insurance; 83% of those who did receive aid worry that their benefits will run out before they find a job.

FULL story at link.

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Copyright © 2009 WORKING AMERICA

[FirstLight]

1. Yikes...great informative article though.

(I'll have to go check out the rest of the issue ;))

I have been laid off since January, and was barely eeeking by even before that working part time as a church secretary...and still freelancing as much as possible to scrape by. We are actually better on food stamps and aid - but it is still poverty - plain & simple.

If I spend more than $50 on school supplies for my 3 kids I may come up short on the electric bill, been avoiding a shutoff for a month or so now...

Got picked up for a training program through the Workforce Investment Act...taking a cert. program at the CSU.
Thank god class isn't that often, but I do have to drive 2 hours each way to get there for an 8 hour class.
....and though it is fun and interesting and exciting to think I am finally getting the detailed training and insight into business, and that should somehow give me an edge...
I am still not seeing the job market increasing anytime soon. I have been watching the job boards for the past 6 months, and will finish my program soon, and may still end up working a clerk job to just get by.

there is alot of stuff that goes along with poverty living, and some of those suck - some are positive too:
-education becomes important when you realize that it is the way to change and effect your reality.
-helping those in need becomes an intrinsic value of humanity.
-finding joy in simple things and using your resources more wisely becomes second nature.

perhaps the poverty consciousness we are experiencing on such a mass scale will serve to wake us up and get us onboard with the change & work we need to do to get our collective asses out of these messes (economy, climate, peak oil, etc...)

[OneGrassRoot]

2. Brilliant post, FirstLight. Thank you! :) n/t

[malaise]

3. K & R

Excellent work